Supply Of Donated Blood Is Very Low

Official Appeals For Donors

January 15, 2004|By GARRET CONDON; Courant Staff Writer

When the mercury drops, so does the blood supply. Winter blood woes are an annual problem for the Red Cross, which struggles to keep blood drives going despite poor weather and would-be donors stricken by flu and colds. This year's low supply prompted an appeal Wednesday from the Red Cross and from Dr. J. Robert Galvin, who recently took over as the state health commissioner.

``We have to attract people who have never given blood before,'' said Galvin, speaking at a blood drive at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. ``This is life-saving stuff, folks.'' Galvin said he had spent a decade in emergency medicine and had seen donated blood save many lives. Felisha Cruz, 10, and Breyonna Stevens, 12, both of West Hartford, who have sickle cell disease and have benefited from many transfusions, thanked donors for rolling up their sleeves.

The Red Cross considers a three-day supply of all blood types adequate, which is 2,000 pints of red blood cells. As of Wednesday morning, the Farmington blood bank had 303 pints on hand. This is less than half of the supply on the shelf last year on the same date and is considerably lower than the 5,055-pint stockpile two years ago.

Gary Wandmacher, CEO of the American Red Cross' Connecticut Blood Services Region, said that while heavy snow was a factor last winter, this year widespread respiratory illness apparently is hurting blood drives. Except for relatively rare blood types, hospitals are only getting half of what they ask for or getting blood on a patient-by-patient basis.

At a number of hospitals contacted by The Courant, no surgical procedures had been canceled as a result of the low blood supply. Dr. Edward Snyder, director of the blood bank at Yale-New Haven Hospital and professor of laboratory medicine at Yale Medical School, said that his hospital imposes stricter-than-usual blood conservation measures before the winter holidays to shore up its supply. Yale-New Haven also dips into its own reserve of frozen blood and encourages patients to donate blood in advance for their own surgeries. These measures, along with Red Cross deliveries, he said, allow the hospital to meet its daily transfusion blood needs.

``If, God forbid, there would be a major disaster,'' he said, ``we would not have enough blood.''